1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for printing an image. By providing users with a graphic environment for checking and re-setting a print area prior to printing the image, the method and system prevent the cropping of an important part of the image when there is a mismatch between an aspect ratio of the image and an aspect ratio of the printing material.
2. Description of the Related Art
At present, digital cameras, personal computers, and the like generally print images having an aspect ratio of 4:3. Due to users' preferences, the number of ratios seems to have gradually increased to include additional ratios, such as, e.g., 3:2 and 16:9 (wide screen). Meanwhile, photo printers for printing photo images taken by cameras have been commercialized. Such photo printers apply printing technologies such as ink jet methods, dye sublimation transfer methods, and direct thermal methods. Such photo printers typically support a printing material having an aspect ratio of 3:2. As a result, when an image having an aspect ratio of 4:3, e.g., an image captured by a digital camera or the like, is printed on the printing material having the ratio of 3:2, portions of the image are cropped or big spaces occur near the edges of the printing material due to the mismatch between the image and the printing material. The spaces near the edges of the printing material are the result of adding horizontal and/or vertical mattes to the image, thereby creating a letterbox, pillarbox, or windowbox.
Meanwhile, options for printing an image on a printing material are widely divided into two types. One is an “Image Full printing” option, and the other is a “Paper Full printing” option. In the Image Full printing option, an image is printed such that the image is not cropped but the edges of a printing material have spaces. Meanwhile, in the Paper Full printing option, the image is printed on the entirety of the printing material, i.e., leaving no spaces. However, in the Paper Full printing option, edges of an image may be partly cropped. In particular, due to the aforementioned mismatch of the ratios of the image and the printing material, much image information from the top and bottom or the left and right ends of an image is unavoidably cropped.
FIG. 1 includes examples (a) through (e) illustrating various ratios of images and printing materials. In addition, the ratios of the images and printing materials illustrated in FIG. 1 are shown in Table 1 below. In Table 1, the reference Im indicates an image and the reference Pa indicates a printing material. When a Paper Full printing option is selected, the images will be printed on the printing material according to ratios of the image and printing material as discussed below.
TABLE 1Printing material ratio vs.ClassificationImage ratio (example)Display mannerIn a case of (a) in FIG. 1Pa = ImMatch width/heightIn a case of (b) in FIG. 1Pa > ImMatch width(Pa = 3:2/Im = 4:3)In a case of (c) in FIG. 1Pa > ImMatch height(Pa = 3:2/Im = 4:3)In a case of (d) in FIG. 1Pa < ImMatch height(Pa = 3:2/Im = 16:9)In a case of (e) in FIG. 1Pa < ImMatch width(Pa = 3:2/Im = 16:9)
As shown in FIG. 1 and Table 1, when the ratios of the image and printing material match with each other, the printed image is not cropped and no spaces remain near the edges of the printing material. However, in general, the image Im has an aspect ratio of 4:3, and the printing material Pa has an aspect ratio of 3:2. When the ratios are mismatched in this manner, a part of the image Im is cropped and an unintentional border is made on the printing material Pa. The portion of image Im which is cropped and the portion of the printing material Pa which contains the unintentional border depends upon whether (1) left-right edges of the image Im and printing material Pa are mutually matched in a width direction as illustrated in FIG. 1(b) or (2) top-bottom edges of the image Im and printing material Pa are mutually matched in a height direction as illustrated in of FIG. 1(c). In such cases, when a part of the image is excluded from a print area, users are obliged to print a cropped image without receiving any prior indication and without an opportunity to select the print area. In particular, when a part of the image that is considered important by a user, for example a part of an image including a person, is cropped in the printed image, users are less satisfied with the printed image, and the operation of printing the image becomes meaningless.